The Hunger Games

[Gandorf61]

So the first full length trailer was released earlier today and I have to say it looks absolutely amazing. :thumbup:

 

I loved the books, and from the looks of the trailer they hit a lot of the characters bang on and captured the book perfectly. Hopefully the full movie will be just as great as the trailer is making it seem.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-5ANq4sAL0

 

Anyone else excited for this film?

[indy500fan]

I thought the first book was ok, but not really good enough to go ahead and get the second or third. I saw the trailer yesterday and at that point it had me excited and thinking maybe I should go back and finish the trilogy, but I let it sit for a while and I started to remember why I never did that in the first place. I'll see the movie, see how much they cut it down to get the PG-13 rating, and if it is still fairly good then that will probably get me back in the mood to re-read the first book and read the rest of the trilogy.

[stevepole]

The trailer looks good. GIves me motivation to read the book.

[H2PM]

Wow. This looks really promising.

[Racheya]

Books were amazing. Film looks okay - excited for it to come out though :)

[Shiny]

Ugh, more teenage-driven action drivel. I can say without batting an eyelid that all semblance of acting talent, or script will have gone out the window, in order for the producers here to make a quick buck. I'm expecting nothing, though my friends will drag me along. That said, I disliked the novel a lot.

[Racheya]

I do kind of worry that they're hopping on the teenage-popular-fiction bandwagon. I've never been much of a fan of the shipping/relationship side and I think the fandom is a bit rubbish and filled with Twihard-like 'Team Peeta' 'Teem Gale' BS but I genuinely enjoyed the books and that's enough for me.

[Kimberly]

I thought the girl they got to play it was too old to be Katniss.

[Gandorf61]

That said, I disliked the novel a lot.

If you hated the novel then yeah there's no point in seeing the movie. I think it's a bit cynical to look at it all from the perspective though.

 

 

I do kind of worry that they're hopping on the teenage-popular-fiction bandwagon. I've never been much of a fan of the shipping/relationship side and I think the fandom is a bit rubbish and filled with Twihard-like 'Team Peeta' 'Teem Gale' BS but I genuinely enjoyed the books and that's enough for me.

I think part of the reason the fandom is like that is because when the Twilight books finished a lot of these fans to start reading the Hunger Games and they just love the whole "Teams" thing. Honestly the romance is such a small portion of the book series and shouldn't be played up to be more than it is.

 

 

I thought the girl they got to play it was too old to be Katniss.

Yeah she's like 21, but if her acting it good enough then I really don't mind.

[Kimberly]

Honestly the romance is such a small portion of the book series and shouldn't be played up to be more than it is.

 

Quite the opposite, it's very important to the story. I don't mean silly, "LOVEY KISSY GOO GOO". But her relationships with Peeta and Gale are part of her growth and evolution as a character. If you downplay that, you're seriously taking away from the story. It's one of the things that made it a very mature instance of Young-Adult literature.

 

I only worry that the films will blow it out of proportion.

[Gandorf61]

Honestly the romance is such a small portion of the book series and shouldn't be played up to be more than it is.

 

Quite the opposite, it's very important to the story. I don't mean silly, "LOVEY KISSY GOO GOO". But her relationships with Peeta and Gale are part of her growth and evolution as a character. If you downplay that, you're seriously taking away from the story. It's one of the things that made it a very mature instance of Young-Adult literature.

 

I only worry that the films will blow it out of proportion.

 

Yeah I guess I downplayed it a little too much. The character relationships are important, but they shouldn't be more prominent than the conflict in Panem. I just don't want to see them trying to capitalize on the Twilight fandom by making it seem like the story revolves around these character relationships. They should just be a large supporting factor in the overall story.

[indy500fan]

Jennifer Lawrence was only ok in X-Men: First Class, but she could do well enough in this role despite being too old.

[JeremyM]

I heard a lot about the books but I'm not a big reader so I haven't read them. Will definitely see the movie though!

[tripsis]

I'm really excited about this :) I have the books in my room now but haven't read them yet. Hopefully I will have time to get those done before the movie comes out!

[Kimberly]

I'm really excited about this :) I have the books in my room now but haven't read them yet. Hopefully I will have time to get those done before the movie comes out!

 

 

They're extremely fast reads, gogogo.

[Jonanananas]

Honestly the romance is such a small portion of the book series and shouldn't be played up to be more than it is.

 

Quite the opposite, it's very important to the story. I don't mean silly, "LOVEY KISSY GOO GOO". But her relationships with Peeta and Gale are part of her growth and evolution as a character. If you downplay that, you're seriously taking away from the story. It's one of the things that made it a very mature instance of Young-Adult literature.

 

I only worry that the films will blow it out of proportion.

 

Yeah I guess I downplayed it a little too much. The character relationships are important, but they shouldn't be more prominent than the conflict in Panem. I just don't want to see them trying to capitalize on the Twilight fandom by making it seem like the story revolves around these character relationships. They should just be a large supporting factor in the overall story.

 

 

Except that exaclty this will happen because that's where the masses of viewers lie. I guess I'm going to watch it myself(unless everyone says it's terrible) but I don't have too many expectations. Even in the trailer there were already a few things that bothered me, such as the fact that Katniss has Make-up from the start on. If they're not honestly trying to watch out for things like this that create a believeable environment, I fear that they let a lot of other things slip as well.

[Gandorf61]

Bumping this up since the movie's just been released on Friday.

 

I saw it a few hours ago and loved it. They really managed to capture almost everything in the book without having to do cheesy voice overs to explain everything Katniss thinks, which was something I was worried about. I came out of the theatre feeling completely satisfied, especially from things such as Lawrence's acting, the additional scenes of the gamemakers, and how well they did the emotional scenes. There was just the right mixture of Katniss' relationships with Gale/Peeta, the rebellion, and the action as well.

 

Some little things here and there were changed/could have been a bit better but overall they didn't bother me very much. Stuff like the hovercrafts looking kind of fake was probably a result of a low budget which hopefully won't be the case for the next 3 films.

 

Really looking forward to Catching Fire now! :thumbup:

[Maleficus1055]

I read the book the day beforehand and thought it was a good book with a terrible ending (I don't care about the romance aspect at all)

Saw the movie at the midnight premiere and thought it was great, I liked how they insert parts such as the riot scene and keep showing the president so you know there will be a second movie. The movie ending was much better than the book, totally worth a view.

[tripsis]

Unfortunately I won't be able to see it until the second week of April :( But I'm really looking forward to it and I'm glad to hear that you guys enjoyed it!

[Jonanananas]

From the reviews etc. I've read it looks like this is really a good movie and they managed to avoid going down the twilight/teenage girl fandom route. Probably gonna watch it this friday or saturday, really excited for it :D

[Bows]

It was fantastic. I absolutely loved it and so did my girlfriend. Jennifer Lawrence did a wonderful job with her role and to top it all off; she's absolutely stunning. <3:

[Faux]

i didn't read the book so i had no opinion on this movie before going in. i did hear it was 'good', received positive responses and made a boatload of money. i didn't even watch the trailer.

 

the movie sucked. it's cheesy and predictable. there's literally nothing good about this movie other than the lead actress being hot. the acting was sub par and the plotline was kind of dumb. it's actually really funny what woody harrelson and elizabeth banks did in this movie. i guess i'm just shocked they're so desperate for a job that they took on the roles in this film.

[Guest Rob]

i guess i'm just shocked they're so desperate for a job that they took on the roles in this film.

So desperate that they took on roles in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. :roll:

 

--

I just got back from the movies. I thought the movie was really good! Although I imagine that certain parts didn't make a lot of sense for those who hadn't read the books, or they would have at least missed out on some symbolism.

[Gandorf61]

i didn't read the book so i had no opinion on this movie before going in. i did hear it was 'good', received positive responses and made a boatload of money. i didn't even watch the trailer.

 

the movie sucked. it's cheesy and predictable. there's literally nothing good about this movie other than the lead actress being hot. the acting was sub par and the plotline was kind of dumb. it's actually really funny what woody harrelson and elizabeth banks did in this movie. i guess i'm just shocked they're so desperate for a job that they took on the roles in this film.

 

Both Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks took on roles because they loved the books. I know Elizabeth Banks has stated in several interviews that she personally contacted Gary Ross to be given the part. To each his own I guess, but half the actors/actresses in the movie are all huge fans (Jennifer Lawrence included) of the books and are very passionate about making a great adaptation.

 

I can't really comment on the predictability considering I knew everything from the book but I can say there are more shocking twists in the 2nd and 3rd book.

[Jonanananas]

Watched it yesterday...a bit underwhelmed tbh. It's kind of weird, I can't exactly put my finger on it, can't say what they did wrong, but I wasn't really able to enjoy this. The shaky handcamera thing was a bit annoying at times, but not too bothersome and while I did note some logic flaws in the story, they didn't really bother me either.

 

I wasn't really able to bond with the characters though. No idea why, but I wasn't able to really feel with them. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson did a good job, but that didn't seem to help either. Never happened to me before in this way.

 

 

To those thinking about watching it: I would definitely go for it, I think this is more of a personal issue with it...plus I can say it is a very faithful adaption of the book, it doesn't really suffer from the issues that movies based on books often have.